SCITECHDAILY - In some of the driest places on Earth, the ground itself can be alive. What looks like a thin, dark crust on desert soil may actually be a miniature ecosystem, packed with mosses, fungi, bacteria, algae, and tiny animals. These biological soil crusts help hold fragile landscapes together, trapping dust, storing nutrients, and...
EARTH.COM - Moss seems to get by on almost nothing. It colonizes bare rock, survives near-total desiccation, and springs back minutes after rain. The vast majority of land plants form underground partnerships with fungi, trading sugars for nutrients they can’t reach alone. Mosses had always been treated as the exception. New research from California’s desert...
LAIST.COM - An estimated 1.3 million Joshua trees burned as the 2020 Dome Fire swept through 43,000 acres of the Cima Dome in the Mojave Desert. Scientists feared the damage extended far beyond the trees, reaching into the underground networks of fungi that help sustain desert ecosystems. Instead, fungi are thriving underground. That finding —...
SMITHSONIAN MAGAZINE - When people think of fungi, most tend to picture mushrooms, the spore-bearing bodies of some fungi that are typically found growing in soil or on trees. However, the whole fungal kingdom is so much more than that: Our planet hosts an estimated 2.2 million to 3.8 million species of fungi, which are...
EARTH.COM - After a wildfire tears through a landscape, the destruction looks absolute. Hillsides turn black, trees collapse into ash, wildlife scatters, and the soil itself seems lifeless. Then something unexpected happens. Within days or weeks, life creeps back. Not trees. Not deer. Fungi. Some of these fungi were barely there before the fire. You...
DISCOVER MAGAZINE - Although wildfires are a natural and recurring phenomenon in certain regions, climate change is intensifying their impact. Each year, fires now swallow around four percent of Earth’s land surface, leaving behind vast, unrecognizable charred landscapes. While most living organisms succumb to the flames, certain plants need regular fires to help bring life...
SAN BERNARDINO SUN - Driving west Friday morning on Riverside’s Arlington Avenue, I see the two-story boxy shape, a peak at the top, from a block away. Momentarily I think it’s a church. Then I recognize what I’m seeing. It’s not a church, but in a sense it’s still holy ground. California’s citrus industry started...
THE GUARDIAN - Chemical-laden dust from southern California’s drying Salton Sea is probably harming the lungs of people around the shrinking body of water, and the effects are especially pronounced in children, new peer-reviewed research from the University of California, Irvine, shows. A separate peer-reviewed study from the University of California, Riverside, also found the...
DISCOVER MAGAZINE - When it comes to the microbiome, researchers have extensive knowledge of the microbial community living in our guts. The lungs, however, are a different story. While it may sound odd, microbes do live in our lungs, and breathing in certain substances, like certain dust, can cause harm to the lung microbiome. A...
NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES - The National Academy of Sciences announced today the election of 120 members and 30 international members in recognition of their distinguished and continuing achievements in original research. Those elected today bring the total number of active members to 2,662 and the total number of international members to 556. International members...